Up to 50% of mental health clinicians report experiencing burnout throughout the lifespan of their clinical careers. * (Warlick, C. A., Van Gorp, A., Farmer, N. M., Patterson, T., & Armstrong, A. (2021) source)
Not only is this figure a saddening insight into the mental health and wellbeing of Therapists and Health Professionals, the above cited study also states that “burnout is a process that can lead to lower quality patient care and poorer treatment outcomes”.
Not what a caring human who wants to be of service and support others to thrive wants to hear!
Needless to say … if you too are at the end of your tether and know your emotional, physical and mental health are in need of some self care, rest assured you’re not alone.
In fact, the team here at Therapists Rising, have been exactly where you are, and can relate to everything you’re experiencing and feeling (but don’t worry, there’s a path forward – keep reading!)
There are articles abound online about how to heal from occupational burnout and care for your mental health as you work…
Many of which will guide you to do things like:
- Have more regular professional supervision
- Up the ante on your relaxation/mindfulness/meditation practices
- Engage in extracurricular activities and self care practices
- Put strategies and boundaries in place that support you to separate your personal life and work life
- Advocate for cultural and systemic change in your workplace.
If these kinds of strategies resonate with you, then power to you. We celebrate you for being proactive in your healing!
Our perspective however, is that while these perspectives hold validity, we know that when you’re knees deep in burnout and feel like you’ve been sinking in a pool of exhaustion for years, one-size-fits-all workplace practices and mental health self care strategies like these aren’t going to meet everyone’s needs.
The issue with generic burnout recovery plans is that they don’t account for individuality.
While engaging in a regular meditation may support you to feel more calm and emotionally resilient, it may not be the right long term solution for you if the organisational culture of your workplace is at the heart of your burnout.
The same goes for engaging in regular practice supervision if what’s at the heart of your emotional experience is not the clinical work itself, but the rigid administrative boxes you need to tick each day, just to meet your professional and organisational requirements.
But trust us, it’s not all doom and gloom! There is a sustainable and joy-filled way forward!
Let us show you transform your burnout into wellbeing, joy and bucketloads of career fulfilment!
Why do you feel burnt out and fatigued in your work?
Before you aim to find a solution to your burnout, you first need to understand the leading cause/s.
“But wait, aren’t I burnt out because I work in a high pressure industry, and work too many hours?”
Sure, that may be one factor but our guess is that your truth runs deeper and is more nuanced than that.
While there are definite common themes among the Therapists and Health Professionals who experience burnout, every individual journeys towards burnout for their own unique reasons.
It’s important to get to the root of what’s causing you to feel burnt out and fatigued in your work, so you can come up with the most fitting solution, for your mental health and general wellbeing, as possible.
Take some time now to check in with yourself around what’s contributing to your feelings of burnout/exhaustion/compassion fatigue…
- Perhaps you’re seeing more 1:1 clients than your energy and empathy can handle?
- Working your backside off, but not seeing the financial gains?
- Have a handful of clients you don’t love working with?
- Are working overtime, all the time?
- Reached your limit for holding space for people who have experienced trauma? (This is okay – know that you’re not a ‘bad’ person or clinician because of it!)
- Exhausted from the workplace hierarchies and politics?
- Sick and tired of having to record every single little thing, and having your unpaid admin tasks eat up your clinical time?
- Over having to ask permission to take holidays, or plan months in advance because your schedule doesn’t allow for flexibility and freedom?
- Not getting to spend as much quality time with your family as you’d like, or feel like you’ve lost your identity outside of your work title.
It’s important to know what’s causing you to feel burnt out because you can then use this wisdom to figure out your next best steps forward.
What’s your dream future vision for your career?
Now that you know what’s contributing to your feelings of burnout and compassion fatigue, we invite you to propel yourself forward into your dream future.
One thing we encourage our clients, who are in the thick of burnout to do, is ask themselves…
How do I want my career to feel?
What would thriving in my work look like for me?
Why?
So we can take intentional action and be clear on what we’re moving towards (rather than just taking random misaligned steps that spin us round in circles and don’t solve the problem!)
As you tap into your future vision we want you to know this…
You don’t have to accept what is, simply because it’s the norm in your industry (for example, to feel exhausted and be overworked all the time!)…
And you can do things your own way, even if what you desire for yourself feels wild and nonsensical and scary!
Never would we have imagined that we could not just replace, but exceed, our clinical incomes AND cut down on our draining 1:1 client loads…
Or run a sold out 5-figure group program from the comfort of our own homes…
Or take 2 months off over the festive season to be completely present with our loved ones…
Or have our mental and emotional health feeling more loved up on, and nourished, than ever before.
If someone had told us five years ago that this was the life we’d been living – well, we simply wouldn’t have believed them! Our mindsets were too limited at the time!
But the world really is your oyster and one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to listen to your needs, wants and desires and dare to dream big.
THIS is how you will create change in your work that is aligned and fulfilling, and will keep burnout at bay.
From burnt out and compassion fatigued – to healthy, happy and abundant … an alternative way forward.
We see a common pattern unfold for many of the burnt out Therapists and Health Professionals we cross paths with.
Once they create the space to get clear on what they want from their career and how they want to feel…
And gain clarity around what caused them to get to the point of burnout in the first place…
They come to realise that their careers as they’ve known them, aren’t for them anymore.
This doesn’t mean that they decide to turn their whole career on its head, throw their years of experience (maybe even decades!) out the window, or take a pay cut.
It simply means that they make a choice to work in their own way – in a way that works for them, and is conducive to their health, wellbeing and joy.
Very often Therapists and Health Professions succumb to the restrictive frameworks of their professions and forget that they can…
- Choose who they work with and support
- Have full autonomy over their calendars
- Charge for their value, not for their hours
- Make their own goddamn rules for their work and life!
For many of these people the right path forward for them is in fact to…
Step away from the rigid and stifling clinical sphere and instead…
Diversify their practice, and create a non-clinical business they love.
We know this may sound wild if it’s the first time you’ve crossed paths with this concept…
But the simple fact of the matter is that fitting ourselves into a rigid, one-size-fits-all system, is never going to be entirely conducive to our wellbeing unless we ‘fit’ that system perfectly (which is the very rare human).
PLUS, when you start looking around, practice diversification and moving towards non-clinical offerings is happening everywhere! In fact, there’s hundreds of examples in our free Therapists Rising Facebook group.
We see so many innovative non-clinical creations from the Therapists and Health Professionals in our community…
- Writing books
- Running retreats
- Creating therapeutic journals
- Creating coaching packages
- Facilitating online group programs
- Leading corporate trainings
- Hosting webinars
- Running parenting groups
- … and more!
All on their own terms and using the skills and experience they’ve already spent years learning and refining in their clinical practice!
PLUS, many of them are not only earning more than they did in their clinical practice…
THEY’RE FEELING LIKE THEIR MOST WELL AND INSPIRED SELVES AGAIN AND THEIR CLIENTS ARE BENEFITING FROM IT TOO!
*happy dance*
Diversifying your clinical practice and redesigning your career – your first steps!
We want you to know…
You do not have to suffer!
Just because burnout and compassion fatigue are common, doesn’t mean that they are okay!
No-one should have to work and live feeling that way.
As soon as we realised that? WOWZA! It felt like a weight had been lifted from our shoulders and we began to see all of the creative possibilities that awaited us!
If you’re ready to say farewell to a system that isn’t supporting you to thrive…
And dip your toes into exploring what it might be like to create an abundant and successful non-clinical business you love…
We have a helpful gift for you!
Our FREE mini-training – A Therapist’s Guide to Diversify Your Clinical Practice and Create a One-To-Many Offer – walks you through 6 steps you can start taking today to begin creating a work life you love and move from Therapist/Health Professional to Entrepreneur!
ACCESS YOUR FREE TRAINING
We’ve witnessed burnt-out professionals, just like you, completely turn their lives around and sell out their non clinical offerings in just a couple of months of choosing a different way forward for themselves.
We want this for you too!
We can’t wait to see you heal from your burnout and compassion fatigue, and create a new set of career rules for yourself that support you to feel well, be abundant and fall back in love with your work and life.
The Therapists Rising Team. X
* Warlick, C. A., Van Gorp, A., Farmer, N. M., Patterson, T., & Armstrong, A. (2021). Comparing burnout between graduate-level and professional clinicians. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 15(2), 150–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000328